Rhiannon Giddens was the subject of a feature on PBS NewsHour, looking at her solo debut album, Tomorrow Is My Turn. "Her debut celebrates women who influenced her, some famous like Dolly Parton and Patsy Cline, others, like Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Libba Cotten, much less so," says NewsHour's Jeffrey Brown. "The album also showcases Giddens’ range through gospel, blues, country, and jazz." Watch the NewsHour piece here. Forbes, reviewing her recent NYC tour stop, exclaims: "Besides a thrilling voice, she comes at you with a barrage of sounds and sights and movements from an arsenal of talents that will positively floor you ... She’s a musician’s musician, and, moreover, a people’s musician, one of the best ever."

Olivia Chaney, whose debut album, The Longest River, is due out April 28, will perform a number of shows celebrating the release in the United Kingdom in May, in Manchester, Edinburgh, and London, before heading to North America for a three-week tour starting in Washington, DC, on June 4 and culminating in New York City on June 25. During a recent visit to the States, Chaney stopped by The Living Room in Brooklyn—a stop on her upcoming tour—to perform "Imperfections" for a new video, which you can watch here.

The Staves celebrated the release of their new album, If I Was, with a performance at Wilton's Music Hall in London last month. You can now watch four performances from the concert: three songs from the album—"Make It Holy," with album producer Justin Vernon, "Teeth White," and "Black & White"—as well as their take, with Vernon, on the Bruce Springsteen classic "I'm on Fire." Watch them here.

Tyondai Braxton shares a new track, "Gracka," from his Nonesuch debut album HIVE1. "'Gracka' is a nickname for my wife Grace and it reminds me of her," says Braxton. "The piece emulates her always surprising, always beautiful spirit and down to earth nature." Hear the track here. Braxton also announces the Canadian premiere of HIVE at Montreal's MUTEK Festival on May 30, followed by a three-night HIVE residency at The Kitchen in NYC, June 4–6, and solo dates in Copenhagen, Ghent, and London. 

Sam Amidon, whose latest album, Lily-O, was released in September, kicks off a tour of Europe with a performance in Ghent, Belgium, tonight, followed by a two-week tour of the Benelux countries, Ireland, and the UK with Sharon Van Etten, and a ten-day solo tour culminating in a performance at Islington Assembly Hall in London on May 10. Amidon then heads to the US for performances at the Brooklyn Academy of Music celebrating the music of Arthur Russell and several summer festivals, including Wilco's Solid Sound, Justin Vernon's Eaux Claires, and Pickathon.

The Staves celebrated the release of their new album, If I Was, with a performance at Wilton's Music Hall in London last month. The concert included, among other songs from the album, the tune "Teeth White." You can watch the performance of that song here. The trio is currently touring Europe and has just announced a tour of the United Kingdom for this autumn. The Staves also perform at the Eaux Claries Music Festival in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, where they recorded the album with producer Justin Vernon.

The Big Ears Festival 2015, which took place in Knoxville, Tennessee, late last month, was the subject of a feature profile on PBS NewsHour on Friday. The piece looks at how the festival "breaks barriers for open-minded music lovers," not least from performers like this year's artists in residence, Kronos Quartet, and their fellow Nonesuch artists to perform at Big Ears, Rhiannon Giddens, Laurie Anderson, Sam Amidon, and Tyondai Braxton. Kronos's David Harrington and Giddens talk with NewsHour about this idea and how it manifest itself in their own music. You can watch the piece here.

Rhiannon Giddens, Emmylou Harris, and Rodney Crowell will perform in "The Gospel Tradition," at The White House on Tuesday, April 14, as part of the series In Performance at the White House. They will join President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama and an esteemed group of performers, including Aretha Franklin, Darlene Love, and Lyle Lovett, to pay tribute to the fundamental role gospel music has played in the American musical tradition. The President’s remarks and the entire event will be streamed live at whitehouse.gov/live at 7 PM ET. The Gospel Tradition: In Performance at the White House will air on PBS on Friday, June 26.

Alarm Will Sound performs Adams, Reich, and Braxton, and Timo Andres performs his Shy and Mighty at Seoul's Right Now Music Festival ... Laurie Anderson performs in upstate NY ... Fatoumata Diawara starts US tour ... Rhiannon Giddens takes tour to mid-Atlantic ... Audra McDonald sings at SUNY Potsdam ... Brad Mehldau plays three sold-out shows in Paris, including a set with Tigran Hamasyan ... Punch Brothers tour Texas ... Joshua Redman Trio tours Europe ... and more ...

In 2011, The Bad Plus invited saxophonist Joshua Redman to join them for a week of performances at the Blue Note in NYC. They then played a handful of dates before heading into the studio in 2014 to record their debut album, The Bad Plus Joshua Redman, due May 26 on Nonesuch (June 8 outside North America). Pre-order to download the track "Dirty Blonde," written by bassist Reid Anderson, now. Seven of the nine tracks on the album are new compositions by the quartet members who, in addition to Anderson and Redman, include The Bad Plus pianist Ethan Iverson and drummer David King; the other two songs on the album are new arrangements of Bad Plus favorites. The Bad Plus Joshua Redman begins a world tour in NYC June 10.

Brad Mehldau Trio kicks off a two-week tour of Europe with a performance at the Opéra de Rouen in Rouen, France. It's the first of several performances in the country, followed by stops in Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, and Italy. The Trio's set at the Philarmonie in Paris this Saturday is one of three nights Mehldau plays there this weekend, also including a solo set and a special duo concert with Tigran Hamasyan. Following the European tour, the Trio returns to the States for six-night residency at the Village Vanguard in NYC in early May. 

Rhiannon Giddens takes her tour to Atlanta and makes her Grand Ole Opry solo debut ... Laurie Anderson speaks with Neil Gaiman at Bard College ... Jeremy Denk performs Bach's Goldberg Variations in his German debut ... Natalie Merchant tours Colorado ... Punch Brothers play two nights in San Francisco ... and more ...